Cop.



Patented July I7, |900.

s. w. wABDwELL, 1n.

' coP.

(Application led Apr. 7, 1900.)

3 sheets-snm s.

(No Model.)

"(4 IlllllI-ll Illllllllllllli i WITNESSES Patented .Iuly I7, |900. S. W. WARDWELL, IR.

CDF'.

(Application led Apr. 7, 1900.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 2,

(No Model.)

WTNESSES Nu.y 653,7l8. Patented July I7. |900.

s. w. wARnwELL, in.

' CUP.

(Application led Apr. 7, 1900.) (NU HUBL) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 WITNESSES y INVENTOH ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

SIMON W. WARDWELL, JR., OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

COP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 653,718, dated July 17, 1900. Application led April 7, 1900. Serial No. 12,004. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Beit known that I, SIMON W. WARDWELL, Jr., a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oops7 of which the following is a specication.

My invention relates to that class of thread or yarn packages currently known as cops and to those particular cops which are employed as a supply for shuttles, more especially for thrown or ily shuttles used in cloth-looms.

The object of my invention is to produce a cop adapted for use especially in loom-shuttles, which cop, containing more material than cops of general constructionintended to be similarly employed, shall be so constituted that said material may be used in the loom to bestadvantage, producing a better fabric than can now be obtained and with less waste than is now incident to the process of weaving with shuttles having the usual form of cops.

As the term cop is frequently employed with a restricted significance to indicate a package wound upon a particular style or kind of tube and as the various packages used in shuttles are frequently distinguished by the name of the tube or carrier on which they are wound, I shall inthis specification employ the term cop to denominate the yarn or thread package irrespective of the character of the tube or carrier which supports it. I shall likewise for convenience employ the term thread to indicate any material which may be wound and used in the shuttle.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an exterior view illustrating one form of my improved cop partly wound; Fig. 2, an exterior View showing a completed cop; Fig. 3, a plan of a shuttle with the improved cop therein partly unwound; Fig. 4, a sectional vieu7 of a shuttle with the partially-unwound cop therein; Fig. 5, a view illustrating the unwinding action with a continuous Wardwellwound cop; Figs. 6 and 7, views illustrating cops of usual winds and the manner in which the thread delivers therefrom.

The improved cop consists of a practicallycontinuous thread, cord, 0r yarn; but such thread instead of being wound from end to end of the cop, as usual, is wound in short sections, which, arranged in line on the same axis, constitute the cop, the thread at the surface or outside layer of one section connected with the first or innermost layer of the next section, so that in unwinding the cop the thread will be uncoiled from the succes'- sive layers of one section and the latter will loe wholly unwound before the thread begins to uncoil from the outer layer ofthe next section, and so on until' section by section the cop is gradually exhausted, while the play of the thread in unwinding instead of extending from end to end of the whole cop, as usual, merely extends the length of a section until the lat-ter is exhausted, when it unwinds from the succeeding section. The sections may be of any desired length and'diameter and may be cylindrical olrconical.

Most of the processes now employed to wind thread for use in shuttles are such that it is intrinsically impossible to wind a package of maximum density Without impairing the even tension of delivery. Indeed so loosely is the thread wound and in such manner is it laid that frequently when the cop is in a shuttle while thethread is being drawn from the shuttle several coils will be dislodged from the cop and, tangling, cause the thread to break. Breakage from this and other causes necessitates frequent interruption of the weaving to piece broken ends and, in conjunction with frequent delays incident to renewing the exhausted thread in the shuttle, seriously impedes the operator and limits the production of the loom. Furthermore, every variation in the tension or drag on the thread as it is drawn from the shuttles manifests itself in the fabric by a corresponding defect.

This is particularly noticeable at the woven edge or selvage of the fabric, which when the tension becomes uneven draws or curls. In the body of the fabric it is evidenced by a tendency of the cloth to pucker and wrinkle. The value of fine goods-as, for instance, silk-is essentially impaired by such imperfections. To minimize 'the defects indicated, it is the general practice towind certainforms of cops-as, for instance, all packagesintended for use in thrown shuttlesin the same general form. Such packages termi- IOS nate each in a substantially-conical extremity or 4nose, as it is termed, as in Figs. 6 and 7, and it is upon this nose alone that the thread is deposited during the building of the cop. Conversely, in the process of weaving the thread is drawn only from the nose of the cop. This peculiar type of winding is known as filling-wind in contradistinction to the warp-wind in which the yarn is wound from end to end of the package, somewhat as on a spool. By this means the irregularity of tension incident to drawing the thread over the uneven periphery of a long cop and the tendency of thethread to catch and break have been lessened, for the thread is drawn away from the surface of the nose instead of lover it. Despite the advantages incident to the filling-wind, however, the thread frequently does catch and break and injure the fabric, and owing to the conical form of the nose a large proportion of the necessarily-limited yarn-space in the 'leaving the cop.

shuttle is wasted. The latter is a matter of such .importance that manufacturers have resorted to various expedients to increase the capacity of the shuttle-supply. The packages are wound under pressure, or, having been Wound under the usual conditions, are subjected to pressure. While these expedients may somewhat increase the density of the package,they decrease neither the amount of breakage nor the irregularity of the tension in the process of weaving. On the contrary, they tend to increase these defects.

With the existing provisions for winding thrownshuttle cops the ordinary form of warp-wind cannot be adapted for this class of work, as in such winds the thread is laid without systematic precision, thus making the surface of the cop so rough that the thread cannot be properly unwound. This trouble could be lessened by winding the package as set forth in Letters Patent No. 607,202 and shown in Fig. 5 of the accompanying drawings,in which the thread is deposited in smooth layers, each layer consisting of a succession of helices and each helix extending from end to end of the cop and deposited parallel to and close beside apreceding or a succeeding helix of the same layer. The use of this improved wind,however, does not fully solve the problem, for in order to freely and completely unwind thread from such a cop an appropriate proportion must exist between its length and diameter and distance from the delivery-point to which the thread passes immediately after In a thrown shuttle this delivery-point-the eye c, Figs. 3 and 4t, through which the thread passes in its course to the fabric-is necessarily very close to the end of the cop. Were a cop employed such as I have just described and indicated in Fig. 5, the following action would take place: As the unwinding coils, traveling from end to end of the cop, recede from the point of delivery the thread, which owing to the proximity of the delivery-point to the end of the package cannot 'fly out laterally, tends more and more to dra-w around and cling to its surface, until finally the diameter of the cop bears such a relation to its ent-ire length and to the distance of the uncoiling portion of thread from the end of the cop over which it is drawn that the thread will no longer deliver freely. This is due to the great length of the cop compared with its necessarily-limited diameter and therefore to the action of the various tendencies and iniiuences attendant on the operation of unwinding by drawing a thread over the end of so long a cop for the full length of the same. As the thread is drawn from the cop it naturally tends to' follow the course of the spirals in which it was laid and revolve about the cop. This tendency is necessarily strongest at the point where the thread begins to leave its coiled position on the body of the cop, as at bor-b', Fig. 5. This tendency to revolve about the cop diminishes in effect with the distance from the point of uncoiling. When this-point is near the end of the cop over which the thread is drawn, as at b, Fig. 5, any resistance to revolution, due to the drag of the thread at and adjacent to the point ct on the surface of the cop, is readily overcome, While if the uncoiling is taking place at a point distant from the delivery end of the cop, as indicated at b in Fig. 5, the friction may be so great as to retard the revolution of the yarn about the cop. Another agency which is active to assist the unwinding is the centrifugal force Aimparted to the thread dueto its rapid revolution about the cop. Itseffect is to throw the thread radially'outward from the surface, thus reducing its pressure thereon and the consequent friction. Like the tendency of the thread t0 revolve this centrifugal action is strongest at the point of uncoiling and diminishes in effect with increased distance from said point. Thus starting from the delivery end a, Fig.-5,

IOO

IOS

IIO

the thread uncoils freely until, owing either Y to the extreme length of the cop or to its reduced diameter, the uncoiling thread reaches a point at which its centrifugal tendency is insufficient to throw the thread at and adjacent to the point a free from the surface -of the cop, and as a consequence it drags slightly. As the disparity between the length and-diameter increases the portion of the thread which thus drags increases in extent and especially as the point of uncoiling recedes from the delivery end and thev tendency of the yarn to revolve becomes less eective to overcome the resultant friction. The thread dragging over the surface of thecop assumes a helical form, which increasing in extent finally so encompasses the cop as to impart to the thread a constrictive action too powerful to be overcome by its tendency to revolve about the cop. When this condition is reached, the yarn simply draws tightly Without un- Winding, and any further pull serves to strain or break it. Y

I overcome the defects and supply the deficiencies existing in the various types of shuttle-supplynowemployed bytheimproved cop herein described and illustrated in Figs. l to 4.

From the above it will be seen that my improved cop possesses the generalv characteristics of that shown in Fig. 5 and also de scribed in my Patent No. 607,202, but that by dividing such a cop into separate connected sections it may be so appropriately proportioned relative to the limitations of a shuttle that in unwinding each section the tendency of the thread to revolve about the cop and the centrifugal force incident to its revolution shall be sufficient to insure that all of the thread shall be removed in the process of Weaving Without break, catch, or even perceptible variation in the drag or tension.

The different sections of myimproved cop are Wound consecutively upon a common tube, quill, or spindle, the thread of each section being common to and continuous through the other sections. The firstsection is Wound as indicated in Fig. 1, and When completed the thread is extended from the periphery of the section across its end to the tube, Where after being coiled in a substantially-close helix y, having one or more turns or fractions of a turn, it is again deposited in systematicallyconstituted layers to form a section similar to and closely adjacent to the first section. In the same manner other sections may be added until a cop of any desired number of sections is produced. In Fig. l the space occupied by the coils y is exaggerated to more clearly indicate their position and character. The combination of these several sections upon a common tube to be consecutively unwound forms a composite cop Which in its entirety represents a maximum quantity of thread disposed to the best advantage for efficiently producing a fabric unexcelled in smoothness of texture and evenness of selvage.

While, as stated, the improvedcomposite cop can be used for many purposes, it is specially adapted for use in looms and in cases where the thread must be drawn over the end of the cop.

Without limiting myself to the precise construction and arrangement shown, I claim as my inventionl. A composite shuttle-cop consisting of a plurality of separate sections of continuous thread Wound upon and supported by a single tube or holder, the core of the outer section at the delivery end of the cop connected with the outer layer of the succeeding section, and each section consisting` of succeedin gconcentric layers each composed of crossed helices of thread, substantially as set forth.

2. A thread-package for use in loom-shuttles, comprising a tube or holder and a continuous thread Wound in successive sections on and permanently supported by said holder, and each consisting of successive layers, each layer composed of crossed helices extending from end to end of its section and each parallel and close to the adjacent helices lying in the same direction, the thread at the core of the section at the delivery end of the cop connecting with that of the outer layer of the succeeding section, whereby the thread is delivered from the outside of each section and from the sections successively, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

SIMON W. WARDWELL, JR.

Witnesses:

EDWARD F. PARKS, EDWIN C. SMITH. 

